| NJ5 said: I still don't get those who are saying the UK is ideologically/socially closer to the US than to the rest of Europe.
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It's hard to explain but American products tend to be a lot more successful in the UK versus the rest of Europe. Ford, for example, have a much larger marketshare in the UK than any European company, look at the success of the 360 in the UK versus the rest of Europe, our cinemas are stuffed through with films from Hollywood - a lot of European countries, like France, seem to have a far more developed movie industry in than the UK (the UK might produce more films than France, but French films are more popular in France than British films in the UK - which is probably all down to language), the same could be said for the music industry.
Meanwhile, American politics is all over our news, whilst European politics take a side-line, and large numbers of our news sources are owned by American corporations.
The British seem to share similar work values to the USA, as well - we tend to work a lot more hours than our European counterparts. Also, our teens are very similar - I read this study on the BBC somewhere (of which I cannot find a link), which basically said that British teens possess far more gadgets and gizmos than teens from other Euro countries - British teens are far more likely to be hankering for a Pre/iPhone/HTC phone or a 360 than a bicycle. I imagine that this is something very similar to US teens, and I also imagine that this culture has been derived from the American-Teen-Comedies which seem to dominate the British Airspace on a mid-Saturday morn.
Of course, this post could be entirely factually incorrect, but that doesn't matter. These are perceptions, and that's what this thread is about - the British perception that they are separate from Europe, and closer to the USA.
